NOTES
FROM THE WINE CELLAR
SOME THINGS THAT WINE
SHOULD NEVER BE
By John Mariani

❖❖❖COSTA
SMERALDA MAY BE SARDINIA'S PLAYGROUND
BUT ALGHERO IS THE ISLAND'S TRUE SOUL

By John Mariani

When
I arrived in Sardinia after a Transatlantic
flight to Rome and a connection to Alghero, my
first stop was at the fish market for a late
morning jetlagged lunch. It was eleven o’clock,
yet the simple stark cement structure was nearly
empty, the floors washed down and still wet, the
fish stalls cleaned out, leaving only a faint
briny smell of the sea.

I turned to one of the
locals and, feeling like I was in a Monty Python
cheese shop with no cheese, asked where all the
seafood had gone. The man shrugged and said, “It
was all sold this morning.” The boats had pulled
in under the fading stars and their catch was sold
soon after daybreak.

An hour before those stalls were full of flapping
fins and tails, crawling crabs and
claw-waving lobsters, every one now gone. Nothing
could better illustrate the kind of fresh bounty
that Sardinians have access to six days a week,
both in restaurants and at home.

There was a little trattoria called La Boqueria in
the corner of the barren market, with signs
ticking off the seafood offerings of the day.We
ordered, sat down at a crude table, and feasted on
some of the finest fish and crustaceans I’ve ever
had—platters of grilled mullet, fried calamari and
moray eel, gamberoni,
orata,
scungilli, swordfish, and much more, all washed
down with a Sardinian white wine called Nasco.There
were no pastas at all listed.

This was my first trip to Sardinia, the large
amoeba-shaped island in the dark blue Tyrrhenian
Sea, a land known for its rugged, craggy perimeter
and its international playground, Costa Smeralda,
developed in the ‘60s on the east coast by Prince
Karim Aga Khan and now home to some of the most
expensive real estate on the globe.Which
was reason enough for me to avoid it and visit
instead the city of Alghero, which is a far less
trafficked but quite beautiful location on the
west coast.
It is also closer to the true soul of Sardinia.

Alghero
has always had a raucous history, having been
occupied in the 14th century by Spanish troops
whom the locals cut to pieces in an uprising,
which in turn caused King Peter IV to expel most
of the natives and, as did the British with
Australia, re-populated the town with Catalan
convicts and prostitutes.

In 1720 the House of Savoy out of Turin took over
Sardinia, and it became part of Italy with the
Unification in the next century.

Nevertheless, the Catalonian history and influence
abides. Catalan had long been the official
language, and a quarter of today’s citizens still
speak it; the rest speak a local dialect.You see the
Catalan influence, too, in the city’s architecture
and walled fortifications. Some of its people like
to refer to their city as Little Barcelona.

Walking around the city, at a leisurely place,
will bring you back where you began in little more
than an hour, along the way visiting the newly
cleaned and restored Cathedral of Santa Maria
Immaculata di Alghero in a Catalan Gothic style
and along the thick limestone ramparts above the
lapping seashore, which, as in most of Europe, is
largely rocky, although the beautifully named La
Speranza beach is long and wide, withgolden
sand and wonderful sunsets.

I highly recommend a drive out of
town to explore the prehistoric Nuraghe Palmavera
stone towers (left)
built over centuries during the Bronze and Iron
Ages. Spread out over a hillside like squat
Stonehenge monuments, the structures give one an
idea of just how primitive lodgings were 3,400
years ago—basic areas for cooking, sleeping and
worshiping, set far from other tribes and all
other civilizations. The land above the sea drops
down in massive gorges (above) and great primordial rock
formations stand offshore like sentinels.

Sardinian winemaking has come very far, very fast,
so a visit to the modern cooperative of 326
growers who comprise Cantina
Santa Maria La Palma,just outside Alghero, is a
good way to get a quick education. The winery
makes a wide variety of labels, from sparkling
to red and white wines, based on indigenous
grapes like Cannonau, Vermentino di Sardegna and
Monica di Sardegna. The company’s red wines
share the notion that youth, not long aging, has
its own charms, depending on the grape.
Sardinia, south of France and west of Italy, has
a very hot, very dry land, so irrigation of the
vineyards is
allowed; you taste the flintiness of the soil
and the brininess of the surrounding Tyrrhenian
Sea. One of the winery’s bottlings,
Akènta Sub, is actually lowered into the sea for a
while to age (right).

Founded
in 1959, at a time when Sardinian wines had no
reputation and little availability outside the
island, Cantina Santa Maria La Palma’s vintners
realized that by central control of cooperative
growers, the wines could be made better and with
more consistency, fresher, less prone to
oxidation, and at prices that have made them
appealing in a global market flooded with bland
varietals.

In addition, Sardinian food is a mix of
Mediterranean, Italian and indigenous flavors, and
I’ll be writing about them soon in Part Two of
this article.

❖❖❖

NEW
YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

EPISTROPHY

200
MOTT STREET

(212) 966-0904

Despite
my eagerness to find good new Italian
restaurants in New York, some very good ones
inevitably escape my notice, so that when I do
get to visit them, I wonder how I could have
missed hearing about such a wonderful place as
the 13-year-old Epistrophy in NoLita.

Husband
and wife Giorgia and Luca Fadda, together with
partner Nico Paganelli, are proudly Sardinian,
and their little trattoria is named after the
breakthrough bebop composition by Thelonius Monk
and Kenny Clarke.

The restaurant is clearly designed to fit snugly
into its neighborhood—they offer breakfast,
brunch, lunch and dinner—and cocktails based on
Italian models are a big part of the draw. There
is a community table, and the rest of the décor
depends on soft cushioned benches, distressed
brick walls, a sofa to sink into near the window
and racks of Italian magazines to get you in the
mood. Live jazz is played on Saturday nights;
other nights the piped-in music can get a little
loud, though a request to turn it down was
immediately and amiably addressed.

Of the three owners, I only
got to meet Giorgia, and you’ll know her when you
see her. Slender, lithe, with a smile for
everyone, she is the spark plug of Epistrophy and
it is worth your while to take her advice on
ordering.The
rest of the staff is just as cordial, which is
particularly admirable since they have to go up
and down a circular staircase fifty times a night.They
must all have great leg muscles.

Among the starters I liked were some creamy, juicy
polpettine
di vitello ($11), veal meatballs all on
their own in a tomato sauce—no spaghetti. Zucchini
and ricotta croquettes ($11) were a delight,
flavored with mint, basil and a spicy tartar
sauce.

We tried four pastas, one better than the next,
from the spring-perfect fava bean and ricotta tortelli
dressed with pecorino and parmigiano, with a
sprightly lemon and thyme sauce ($19) and a finely
melded cacio
e pepe ($16) to excellent potato gnocchi
with mixed mushrooms and a dash of truffle oil
($18) and—best of all—ear-shaped Puglian orecchiette pasta
with radicchio and pancetta in a light cream sauce
($15).

One of the Sardinian classics at Epistrophy is a
hefty portion of shortribs braised in Cannonau
wine with sweet onions and stone-ground polenta
($25). A properly crisp Milanese chicken cutlet
came with braised kale and the charming addition
of pear mostarda
($19). A nicely
chewy Black Angus grass-fed hanger steak came with
rosemary-scented fingerling potatoes and pearl
onion agrodolce
($19), which carried through the sweet-sour
flavors of other dishes. A tuna steak with truffle
pea sauce lacked the flavor of superior tuna
($25), when so many other fish species would have
been preferable from the daily market.Prices
for these main courses are very, very reasonable.

Epistrophy’s desserts include a very creamy
tiramisù ($7.50), a light pannacotta ($7) and a
dark chocolate mousse ($7.50).

The wine list is about 20 labels strong with only
a couple of Sardinian bottlings, and I would
definitely encourage the owners to add more
specifically Sardinian dishes like malloreddus and
culurzones pastas
and a dessert like seadas. of a kind I
mention in my article about on Alghero.

Now that I know
about Epistrophy and what an effusively friendly
place it is, I could imagine living in the
neighborhood, dropping by several times week—maybe
for breakfast, or cocktails with friends, or a
good dinner on a summer’s night. And I can’t wait
to meet Giorgia's husband and partner to shake
their hands for maintaining such a loveable and
true-to-form trattoria for more than a decade. It
took me long enough to get there, now I can’t wait
to go back.

❖❖❖

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

SOME THINGS THAT
WINE
SHOULD NEVER BEBy John Mariani

I gleefully remember a skit in
a British TV comedy in which a fellow in a pub
recommends a particular wine by saying, “Why,
it’ll make yer nipples stand up like the
Mountains o’ Mourne!”To which his friend
replies, “Well, I’m not sure I want my
nipples to stand up like the Mountains o’
Mourne.”

It was a smart retort to the kind of extravagant
and absurd recommendations made by overheated wine
geeks who have moved well beyond the usual
banalities of Winespeak like “fruit-forward,”
“hint of chocolate” and “subdued tannins.”

One hyperactive sommelier promised me that “This
Cab will blow your doors off!” And in the silly
2013 documentary movie SOMM (right), which follows four
candidates studying to pass the Master Sommelier
exams, one of them swirls and sniffs his wine,
then pronounces, “I’m getting a whiff of ...
freshly cut garden hose.” One has to wonder if
freshly cut garden hose is something a wine should
or should not smell like.

I can hardly blame such zealots; people madly in
love with inanimate objects like a bottle of wine
feel the need to exaggerate to make a point of
their irrational obsessions. And as a wine writer
who labors arduously not to
repeat himself with inane
adjectives in describing half a dozen of the same
varietals, I feel their pain. As humorist Art
Buchwald, who knew his wines, once said, “When it
came to writing about wine, I did what almost
everybody does—I faked it.”

The most hilarious mockery of effusive wine talk
is, of course, James Thurber’s New Yorker
cartoon of a man at dinner with friends saying,
“It’s a naïve domestic little Burgundy without any
breeding, but I think you’ll be amused by its
presumption.”

A more extended
satire of such pseudo-poetical descriptions is in
Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead
Revisited, when his two louche heroes try to
top one another in their assessment of a Château
Lafite-Rothschild 1895 (below):

“It is a little, shy wine, like a gazelle.”

“Like a leprechaun.”

“Dappled, in a tapestry meadow.”

“Like a flute by still water.”

“And this is a wise old wine.”

“A prophet in a cave.”

“And this is a necklace of pearls on a
white neck.”

“Like a swan.”

“Like a unicorn.”

There used to be a wine magazine in which each
bottling was compared to a rock-and-roll
performer, album or song—a big zinfandel to Muddy
Waters’s “Hoochie Koochie Man,” a red Burgundy to
Sade’s “Smooth Operator” and a California
Chardonnay to the Eagles’s “Peaceful Easy
Feeling.” The magazine lasted about four issues.

Currently on the
Turner Classic Movies channel they run a wine club
whose resident “curator,” Justin
Howard-Sneyd, Master of Wine, explains, “With our
movie and wine pairings, our intention is to
choose wines diverse in their flavors with very
good quality and value, but specifically, to
think about those wines, who made them, where
they are from and to draw together a movie
connection — suggesting the kind of film you
might want to watch when you're drinking that
bottle.”

Thus, a
red California wine called Marx Brothers 2015 is
compared to the zany comedians’ film A Night at
the Opera: “All three remaining brothers are
represented in this wine’s mix of grapes . . . and
this is one of their most essential films.Both
[film and wine] are sure to be richly enjoyed.”Of a
Ridgerider Cellars Chardonnay 2014, Howard-Sneyd
writes, “Like the inviting flavors in this
eminently drinkable Central Coast Chardonnay,
Alfred
Hitchcock’s North
by Northwest (left) has it all. Cary Grant’s
wrong man story is the perfect blend of action
comedy and romance capped by thrilling finale on
mount Rushmore. It’s best accompanied by this
enticing wine that has a little something for
everyone—apple, pear, warm vanilla and a hint of
oak.”Many
fine authors and celebrities—none of them wine
writers—have said some wonderful things about
wine, not least in odes and paeans to their
favorite beverage, almost always linked to wine’s
giddy pleasures.The best were succinct, like Bette Davis (right), who
once said, “Never, never trust anyone who asks for
white wine. It means they’re phonies.” Some were
blunt, like D. H. Lawrence, who said, “The Spanish wine, My God,
it is foul, catpiss is champagne compared, this is
the sulphurous urination of some aged horse.” And
Napoleon Bonaparte seemed to have nailed it when
he said, “Nothing makes the future look so rosy as
to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.”

And the best put-down of a wine snob ever spoken
was an exceptionally informed observation by James
“007” Bond when he spurned his boss M’s service of
a particular disappointing brandy in the film Goldfinger (left).
“Well, sir,” says Bond, sniffing a big balloon
glass, “I’d say it was a thirty-year old fine,
indifferently blended, with an overdose of . . .
Bon Bois.”

And no scent of freshly cut garden
hose.

❖❖❖

SOON TO
FOLLOWED BY A RESTAURANT
CALLED SHINGLES
Whole Foods opened
a new location in Long Beach, CA, that
includes a restaurant called Yellow Fever.

IF THIS SELLS, NEXT
UP IS THE HOT DOG SUNDAE

Windy Brow Farms in Fredon Township, NJ, is
now selling ice cream that contains bits of its
processed pork product known as “pork roll” in
southern New Jersey and “Taylor ham” in the northern
section. Maple syrup and French toast are also in the
mix because Windy Brow’s managing partner Jake Hunt
said an all-pork roll ice cream would be “gross”
without the undercurrent of sweetness.

❖❖❖

Wine
Column Sponsored by Banfi VintnersSANGIOVESE

Wine is a joy year-round but
in cooler weather one
grape varietal has really taken center stage in
my daily activities – that most Italian of
grapes, Sangiovese, and its ultimate expression
– Brunello di Montalcino.From mid-September through mid-October,
the Sangiovese grown for our various styles of red
wines are be harvested, culminating with the top
selection for Brunello di Montalcino.
Second, cooler weather here means
it is time to start enjoying more red wines and
especially Sangiovese based wines.That
includes Banfi’s cru of Brunello, Poggio alle Mura,
literally the cream of the crop of our Sangiovese
vineyards. Alongside our Poggio alle Mura Brunello di
Montalcino, this year we introduced two more wines
from the cru Poggio alle Mura – a Rosso di Montalcino
and a Riserva of Brunello.Rosso is sort of like the
younger brother of Brunello, also made from 100%
Sangiovese grapes but usually a selection from younger
vines and the wine is aged only two years compared to
the four required for Brunello.The
Riserva, on the other hand, is an even more selective
harvest of Sangiovese, and ages for an additional year
before release.
What is so special about this cru
Poggio alle Mura?Well, it is the result our over 30 years of
ongoing research at my family’s vineyard estate,
Castello Banfi.When we first began planting our vines there in
the late 1970s studies from the University of Bordeaux
indicated which strains of many varietals we should
plant, based on the soil type and microclimate of each
vineyard.But
when it came to the region’s native Sangiovese, there
was only local lore, no scientific research.So we took
it upon ourselves to figure out this vine, and set off
on three decades of incredibly detailed research. We started
with 600 apparent variations on Sangiovese, because it
is so susceptible to variations in weather and soil,
and narrowed that down to 160 truly genetically
different clones.We planted a vineyard with two rows of each
type, made wine from each of them, and charted the
differences – remember, you only get one chance a year
to make wine, so this took time.
It took about ten years to get some
concrete results, though we continue to experiment
today and always will – you never stop learning in
science and nature!Once we determined which were the best,
complementary clones that could be planted together to
make the best Brunello, we chose to plant them in what
we determined to be the optimal vineyard sites.Coincidentally,
the best soils and climate conditions are in the
slopes surrounding the medieval fortress today known
as Castello Banfi, known since Etruscan times as
Poggio alle Mura – the walled hilltop.Hence the
name of our most special “cru” of Brunello,
representing a synthesis between tradition and
innovation.
Though the focus of this study was
our Brunello, all of our Sangiovese-based wines,
including the super Tuscans SummuS, Cum Laude, and
Centine, benefitted from this work.And that’s
the third reason for celebrating Sangiovese this
month, for the range of wonderful reds that usher us
into autumn!One
wine in particular was inspired by our research – the
BelnerO, a Sangiovese dominant blend with what I like
to call a kiss of Cabernet and a whisper of Merlot.We grow the
grapes a little differently for BelnerO than for
Brunello, make the wine with less oak aging and
released it earlier from the winery, providing a
counterpoint to Brunello and a lovely terroir-driven
wine in its own right.If you
know Italians, you know that by nature we are
multi-faceted, varying in mood, and always passionate.As a
nation, we span from the hot sunny beaches of Sicily
near the African coast to the rugged mountains and
Alpine ski slopes of Trentino-Alto Adige in the north.Sangiovese
is grown in almost all of Italy’s regions and reflects
the unique nature of each; it is most famous
(rightfully so) in Tuscany, yet even there it reflects
the nuances of each hilltop, valley and subzone.It has
something a little different to say in Brunello than
Chianti, Morellino than Vino Nobile di Montepulciano,
Rosso di Montalcino than Super Tuscan blends.
Here is a smattering of
Sangiovese-based wines that you may wish to get to
know better, reflecting a spectrum that appeals to
every occasion, every taste, and every budget.We can
assure you that the conversation will never become
boring.

Poggio all’Oro Brunello di Montalcino
Riserva – A single vineyard selection of our most
historically outstanding Sangiovese, aged five years
before release, the additional year more than that
required of Brunello including 6 months in barrel and
6 months more in bottle to grant its “Riserva”
designation.Incredible
elegance and harmony. Intense with lots of fruit and
subtle wood influence. Round, complete, well balanced
with hints of chocolate and berries. Unfiltered after
1998.

Poggio alle Mura – The first tangible result of years of
intensive clonal research on Montalcino’s native
Sangiovese grape.Estate bottled from the splendidly sun drenched
vineyards surrounding the medieval Castello from which
it takes its name.The Brunello
di Montalcino is seductive, silky and smoky.Deep ruby
in color with an expressive bouquet of violets, fruits
and berries as well as cigar box, cedar and exotic
spices. The Rosso
di Montalcino is also intense ruby red.The bouquet
is fresh and fruity with typical varietal notes of
cherry and blackberry, enriched by more complex hints
of licorice, tobacco and hazelnut.It is full
bodied, yet with a soft structure, and a surprisingly
long finish. The Poggio alle Mura Brunello di Montalcino
Riserva is deep ruby red with garnet
reflections and a rich, ample bouquet that hints of
prune jam, coffee, cacao and a light balsamic note.It is full
and powerful, with ripe and gentle tannins that make
it velvety and harmonious; this wine is supported by a
pleasing minerality that to me speaks soundly of that
special hillside in southern Montalcino.

SummuS – A wine of towering elegance, SummuS is an
extraordinary blend of Sangiovese which contributes
body; Cabernet Sauvignon for fruit and structure; and
Syrah for elegance, character and a fruity bouquet.An elegant,
complex and harmonious red wine.

Centine – A Cuvee that is more than half
Sangiovese, the balanced consisting of equal parts of
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.Vinified in
a firm, round style that easily accompanies a wide
range of dishes, this is a smooth and fragrantly
satisfying wine with international character, and a
perennial favorite at my own dinner table.

Banfi Chianti Classico Riserva – Produced from select grapes grown in the
"Classico" region of Chianti, this dry, fruity and
well-balanced red has a full bouquet reminiscent of
violets.

Fonte alla Selva Chianti Classico – This is our newest entry into the Chianti
arena, coming from a 99 acre estate in Castellina, the
heart of the Chianti Classico region.The wine is
a captivating mauve red that smells of cherry, plum
and blackberry with hints of spice.It is
round, full and balanced with very good
acidity.

The Hound in Heaven
(21st Century Lion Books) is a novella, and
for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance,
inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find
this to be a treasured favorite. The story
concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and
their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their
barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise.
But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and
the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring
his master back from the edge of despair.

“What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was
completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its
message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw

“He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight,
soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani
pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing.
Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James
Dalessandro, author of Bohemian
Heart and 1906.

“John Mariani’s Hound in
Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an
American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise
event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a
voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A
page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote
for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann
Pearlman, author of The
Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister.

“John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a
literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and
the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas
tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children,
read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly
recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling
author of Pinkerton’s War,
The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To
Woodbury.

“Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an
animal. The Hound in
Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that
is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and
his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can
enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara
Royal, author of The
Royal Treatment.

Modesty forbids me to praise my own new book, but
let me proudly say that it is an extensive
revision of the 4th edition that appeared more
than a decade ago, before locavores, molecular
cuisine, modernist cuisine, the Food Network and
so much more, now included. Word origins have been
completely updated, as have per capita consumption
and production stats. Most important, for the
first time since publication in the 1980s, the
book includes more than 100 biographies of
Americans who have changed the way we cook, eat
and drink -- from Fannie Farmer and Julia Child to
Robert Mondavi and Thomas Keller.
"This book is amazing! It has entries for
everything from `abalone' to `zwieback,' plus more
than 500 recipes for classic American dishes and
drinks."--Devra First, The Boston Globe.

"Much needed in any kitchen library."--Bon Appetit.

Now in Paperback,
too--How Italian Food Conquered the
World (Palgrave Macmillan) has won top prize from the
Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards. It is
a rollicking history of the food culture of
Italy and its ravenous embrace in the 21st
century by the entire world. From ancient Rome
to la dolce
vita of post-war Italy, from Italian
immigrant cooks to celebrity chefs, from
pizzerias to high-class ristoranti,
this chronicle of a culinary diaspora is as
much about the world's changing tastes,
prejudices, and dietary fads as about
our obsessions with culinary fashion and
style.--John Mariani

"Eating Italian will
never be the same after reading
John Mariani's entertaining and
savory gastronomical history of
the cuisine of Italy and how it
won over appetites worldwide. . .
. This book is such a tasteful
narrative that it will literally
make you hungry for Italian food
and arouse your appetite for
gastronomical history."--Don
Oldenburg, USA Today.

"Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.

"Mariani
admirably dishes out the story of
Italy’s remarkable global ascent
to virtual culinary
hegemony....Like a chef gladly
divulging a cherished family
recipe, Mariani’s book reveals the
secret sauce about how Italy’s
cuisine put gusto in gusto!"--David
Lincoln Ross,
thedailybeast.com

"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com.

"A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia.

"John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square
Cafe, The Modern, and Maialino.

❖❖❖

FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites:

I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:

Eating Las Vegas
JOHN CURTAS has been covering the Las Vegas
food and restaurant scene since 1995. He is
the co-author of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50
Essential Restaurants (as well as
the author of the Eating Las Vegas web site: www.eatinglasvegas.
He can also be seen every Friday morning as
the “resident foodie” for Wake Up With the
Wagners on KSNV TV (NBC) Channel 3 in
Las Vegas.